Review - One Piece Film: Red

My Bonnie Bride and I went to see One Piece Film: Red at our local theater yesterday. We went into this anime film knowing very little (me) to nothing (Bonnie Bride) about the One Piece series of Anime and Manga. Fortunately, we have a friend who is knowledgeable on Anime in general and is familiar with One Piece, and was able to join us for the movie and pizza afterwards where we talked about the film. Sadly, were not able to convince our daughter, Little Miss, to join us for this film Teenagers!

One Piece Red - IMDB

For One Piece Red, the film focuses on Uta, a singer of great talent, her concert that she is using to bring her fans together, and the Straw Hat Pirates led by Luffy. Not knowing much about the background of the characters or the world of One Piece, both the Bonnie Bride found the film a bit, um, weird. However, that being said, if you know the series, you will have a better understanding of what is going on and who all of the characters are.

As the film focuses on Uta and her singing, we both found the music to be very good and enjoyable. Note – we saw the film dubbed in English, however the singing was presented in its original recording in Japanese with subtitles. The actress singing the songs for the film has a lovely voice and we enjoyed this aspect of the film very much. It is also an integral part of the plot. Hopefully that isn’t a spoiler.

The animation and art style seems to in the same form as a lot of anime that I have seen, which is to say, a bit um, weird. I must admit, my exposure to Anime is rather limited. I am, to coin a phrase, Anime Curious. Note – I have seen some Captain Harlock and a few episodes of other series, and binged watched The Vinland Saga (which is excellent) awhile back, and a bit of Sailor Moon, among a very few others.

Back to the film at hand. For people like us, unfamilair with the history of the series, One Piece Red provided a lot of backstory for Luffy, Uta, and Shanks, some of which was necessary for the overall plot of the film. If you haven’t seen the film and wondering why Shanks has backstory, well, go see the movie and find out! Having backstory provided from different points in the characters’ history and from different points-of-view, helped fill in some of the gaps as to what the heck is going on. Kudos to the creative team for doing that as it helps bring in new fans to a long running franchise of adventure.

Side note – Netflix is producing a live-action adaptation of One piece – IMDB has a short video on the production of it, and it looks darn good. But I don’t have Netflix.

Afterwards, discussing the film with our friend over pizza, we got some of the background details filled in, like what Devil Fruit is, and how different characters have different super powers, and the role of some of the supporting players in the overall series. Eiichiro Ora created a very interesting world for one to explore, and there is a massive amount of stories in the whole franchise to explore.

Overall, we both enjoyed One Piece Film: Red, maybe I enjoyed it more than my Bonnie Bride, and I think it is well worth seeing, either dubbed as we did, or in the original Japanese with subtitles (or, as we found out from the theater we were at, see it both ways back-to-back, as one of their customers did – brownie points for that guy). If you are already familiar with the One Piece series, you’ll enjoy it, and if you are new to it, I hope you like it. It is a fun, rollicking (and Rockin’) good way to spend a couple of hours.

Thanks for stopping by.